After Shanghai

This is now one of my favorite books. I think it should be made into a movie. It has so much to offer...adventure, action, the lifestyle of the rich and famous, shanghai, mystery, love, hopes, dreams, pain, happiness...everything! I picked this book up because it had a pretty cover...then I realized it was a masterpiece and I couldn't put it down. Clio Oliver is a beautitul, innocent creature you just have to sympathize with. And in every page, something exciting, or unexpected or wonderful, or touching occurs. It's a classic love story that is not vulgar and coarse, but rather, intricatly woven into the most beautiful tapestry of events. I'm not sure that makes sense, but everyone should read this book. I think it's a great shame that it is out of print. I hope that it gets rediscovered soon, as, all the reviews for it are simply wonderful. I would give it 6 stars out of 5.

What impressed me most about this novel was the way it did not fit into any of the stereotypical formats for a love story. I had even doubted that there was a love story buried beneath the lusts and betrayals. This is a true to life story, without the frustrating over-riding theme of true love thwarted. We are only given the merest hint of Clio and Stephen's connection. Certainly, their friendship buds and blooms in Shanghai and in such an odd, yet satisfying way too. However, Clio's ongoing commitment to her marriage gives depth and truth to the plot. The ultimate betrayal by her husband gives her strength to move beyond her marriage, and, ah! not immediately into Stephen's arms. How refreshing! Their marriage towards the end becomes all the more beautiful for these two characters, having travelled life's roads and changed and mellowed (the latter especially referring to Stephen), finding lasting happiness and love in each other.

I ran across After Shanghai completley randomly and by chance, decided to buy it. When I began to read it, I was spellbound by the life of Clio and her difficulty of trying to integrate the Shanghai lifestyle into her English lifestyle. As she grows up and integrates herself into rich society that was made up of adulterers and backstabbers, she never quite finds the happiness as she had in her youth in Shanghai. As she enters a marriage she thought would be ideal, she finds that it is unfulfilling and is consistently marked by betrayal. Despite this, at every betrayal, Stephen is there, always present. At first evaluation, he seems cold and distant, but as the book progresses, he becomes more and more a moving force in Clio's life. Despite the difficulties that Clio faces and the hardships that keep cropping up, when she summarizes her life up in a few pages at the end, the reader feels as if her life has been worth all the difficulties because of one person that went beyond all those materialistic things that English society held up so rigidly.

As a reader of many novels, I cannot help but get excited when I finish the last sentance on the last page, close the book and feel that my life is somewhat more enriched by the experience of what I just read. "After Shanghai" by Alison McLeay achieves this remarkable sensation. This historical family saga revolves aound Clio - a woman of English descent born in Shanghai, 1910. Upon her grandfather's death, Clio and her father return to England for the funeral where they remain since the grandfather's will requested Clio's father to run the family shipping business from London with his brother, Clio's uncle. Clio grows up with her uncles children - Rose and Alice - and we are exposed to several other family members including Stephen Morgan, "the scandelous man of the family." As the novel begins, Clio is an elderly woman returning back to Shanghai recalling the people and incidents which have shaped her life. We learn about Shanghai in the 20's and the 30's - we learn about the beauty and passion Shanghai invites. We also see the destruction of Shanghai as a culture by the devastation of war and the Japanese. As Shanghai changes so does Clio and we are taken on a glorious journey of her life. We see her life in its entirety from childhood thru old age and the comparisons between the cultural circumstances of Shanghai and Clio's life circumstance are symbolically intertwined. Ms. McLeay is so intelligent in her writing is is almost frightening. She could have created a mindless family saga - instead she created an engrossing story enhanced by the expertise of her writing. There can be no denying that Ms. McLeay can write and part of the joy in reading is experiencing the beauty of words and one's use of them. Her written passages are engrossing, her story compelling. I stumbled across this novel by accident but you can be sure that this reader will continue to read and search for the novels of Alison McLeay. A I said before, to read Ms. Mcleay and "After Shanghai" is an enriching experience.